Nov 5, 2015

The continuous impact of
climate dynamics, armed conflicts, non-stop urbanization and
economic upheavals present a distinct need for a hybrid architectural
topology to deliver parallel solutions for food and shelter in each distressed
region. This is a dual-purpose shelter and modular insect farm
bounded into one structure. It’s intended for the impending food crisis,
where people will need access to good sources of alternative protein,
as raising livestock is not possible at our current rate of consumption
and resource extraction. The United Nations has mandated insect sourced
protein is a major component to solving global food distribution problems. This arguably impacts the diets of all
peoples across the globe.

In an advanced economic setting, this farm can introduce
a sophisticated and ultra-sanitary method of locally harvesting
insects for the production of cricket flour in fine cuisine recipes.
It can also serve to be a new topology for a specialty restaurant, eatery,
storehouse or similar architectural program. Introducing crickets into the
modern American/ European diet is not a simple task, but there is
precedent. For example, a few decades ago American’s did not wish to
eat raw fish. Yet positive change materialized after sushi
was introduced on a culturally refined and hygienic level. The same
kind of approach needs to be embedded in the cultivation of crickets to
achieve the cleanliness, quality, and purity of
the farm-to-table system. Over two billion people eat insects
every day; it’s time to reintroduce them into the diets of the remaining
population.

Raising cattle, pigs, and chicken for meat products all require
immense amounts of fresh water. Harvesting insects for food typical
takes three hundred times less water for the same amount of protein.
Our project aims to maximize access to nutrient resources and to deal
with and support local communities in anticipation of post-disaster
scenarios. This also targets societal upgrading strategies in both
developed and developing countries as the temporary shelter
easily coverts to a permanent farming system/ eatery after the crisis
has dissipated.

Structurally, the shelter can be minimized into easily
manufactured and replicable elements such as a simple CNC plywood
archway with linked off-the-shelf plastic containers as infill
surface. The current version of the structure is more customized
to account for solar orientation, airflow and varied spatial
programs internally. A computational model was used to parametrically
align all of the individual containers to match the archway splines.
Each pre-ordered container was modified to add ventilation screens,
flexible insect sacks, locally controlled louvers, and permeable
feeder ports with rotating locking mechanisms. The wind quill
ventilation component magnifies the sound of cricket chirping in columns of
vibrating air.

The scheme has a multipronged focus on
international hunger solutions, sustainable food distribution methods
and modular compact architecture. A project of this type is built for
areas in calamitous need both present and future. We understand that our
role in the complex system of global cooperation is to seek
holistic solutions that integrate interdisciplinary knowledge
and citizen participation for shelter and subsistence farming. It is
essential to understand the physical, social and cultural substrate
of developing territories in which food and refuge is simultaneously
critical.

All the arguments against it are right: too crowded, too loud, too spread out, too expensive. But also: too exciting, too energetic, too fast, too much. All superlatives. New York, I Love You, But… is a glimpse at the superlative that is New York; an audience to the internal conversation of the person pressed against the subway door, smelling something unidentifiable on the journey home from some unique and wonderful New York moment. It is a glance at the instances of excess and intimacy, humanity and wonder that define being a New Yorker. “You are a New Yorker when what was there before is more real and solid than what is here now,” (Colson Whitehead) because being a New Yorker is as much about the frenetic thrust into the present (and by that we mean the future), as it is about harboring nostalgia for a New York that’s eternally slipping away. CBGBs or Shea Stadium, Ebbets field or the Twin Towers; affordable rent or addicts in Times Square: all gone. What is lost is our city, the city that each of us individually makes through momentary encounters, reflections in the window of a cab, panoramic vistas we didn’t know existed, but became ours because that is where we fell in love, were held up, got away, and all the other endless events that create the place we call home.

Sep 30, 2015

Inside New Lab: How the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Innovation Hub Is Shaping the Future

by Carey Dunne

Terreform ONE- Who they are and what they do:

Cofounded by Mitchell Joachim and Maria Aiolova, Terreform
ONE [Open Network Ecology] is a non-profit experimental green design
laboratory creating concepts to advance cities across architecture,
industrial design, and landscape ecology. Think buildings made of living
trees, houses made of meat, and chairs grown from mycelium.

The perks of working at New Lab:“There is no office space like this. We’re in the center
of a high-tech elf workshop. We’re a combination of a coworking space
and a maker community, and we get to collaborate with people in other
companies with vastly different backgrounds and skill sets.”

What’s coming next:“For years, we’ve been working on the ‘Post Carbon City State,’ a
speculative model for a future Manhattan with zero carbon footprint,
made entirely of green stuff: a light rail instead of cars, buildings
with sides covered in plants for better air quality, etc.,” Joachim
says.

Jun 24, 2015

WHY GROW A SURFACE? These prototypes for a mycoform surface system occupy the intersection of parametric CAD design and synthetic biology. Their multi-curved shapes are designed and cut digitally, but the segments are grown from strains of fungi into the specific 3D geometries of the piece. Mycoform is a product grown from ordinary biological matter and added to precise compacted forms of inert waste. We use polypore fungal species (in this case the fungus Ganoderma lucidum) that possess enzymes to readily digest a wide variety of cellulose based agricultural byproducts. The internal filler is made up of mycelia substrate, a combination of discarded wood chips, gypsum, oat bran, which is consumed by mycelia and then hardened into a tough, durable functional material. The external skin is bacteria cellulose. The mycelia substrate and bacterial cellulose integrate to become a hard biopolymer that is suitable for architectural applications. This low-tech, low energy process is pollution free, and contains a low embodied energy as part of a local ecosystem. The technology is easily transferable to the developing world. At the end of the useful product life cycle, Mycoform can be composted and safely reintroduced back into the environment, where it can be naturally biodegraded.

Terreform ONE

A non-profit design group that promotes smart design in cities. Through our creative projects and outreach efforts, we aim to illuminate the environmental possibilities of New York City and inspire solutions in areas like it around the world.

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Mitchell Joachim is the Co-Founder of Terreform ONE and an Associate Professor of Practice at NYU.
Formerly, he was an architect at the offices of Frank Gehry and I.M. Pei. He is a TED Senior
Fellow and has been awarded fellowships with Moshe Safdie and Martin Society for
Sustainability. He was chosen by Wired magazine for "The Smart List” and selected by Rolling
Stone for “The 100 People Who Are Changing America”. Mitchell won many awards including;
AIA New York Urban Design Merit Award, 1st Place International Architecture Award, Victor
Papanek Social Design Award, Zumtobel Group Award for Sustainability, History Channel
Infiniti Award for City of the Future, and Time magazine’s Best Invention with MIT Smart Cities
Car. He's featured as “The NOW 99” in Dwell magazine and “50 Under 50 Innovators of the
21st Century" by Images Publishers. He co-authored the books, “Super Cells: Building with
Biology” and “Global Design: Elsewhere Envisioned”. His design work has been exhibited at
MoMA and the Venice Biennale. He earned: PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
MAUD Harvard University, MArch Columbia University.